Quote
1931·London, England
I will not be "famous," "great." I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one's self: to let it find its dimensions, not be impeded.
Once conform, once do what other people do because they do it, and a lethargy steals over all the finer nerves and faculties of the soul. She becomes all outer show and inward emptiness; dull, callous, and indifferent.
The man who is aware of himself is henceforward independent; and he is never bored, and life is only too short, and he is steeped through and through with a profound yet temperate happiness.
Shunryu Suzuki·1970What we call 'I' is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no 'I,' no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.
Fyodor Dostoevsky·1864The whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano-key!
Friedrich Nietzsche·1878To make ourselves, to shape a form from various elements — that is the task! The task of a sculptor! Of a productive human being!
